and similar cooperation, on the icy continent. The next few years will
be crucial to Antarctica's future. Increasingly it is beset by man-made
pollutants; tourists are clamoring to visit. Most important, the interna
tional treaty that governs Antarctica comes up for review in 1991,
leaving open to discussion such vital issues as scientific research, min
ing, military presence, and territorial claims. As the world's greatest
remaining pure wilderness, Antarctica's harsh yet surprisingly deli
cate environment must be preserved.
Asked why six men, one each from the United States, France, the
Soviet Union, the People's
Republic of China, Japan, and
Great Britain, would attempt
such a challenge, Jean-Louis
spoke for us all when we
announced Trans-Antarctica:
"You dream about exploration
oryoudonot.. butifyoudo,
then the attraction is very
strong, all of your life."
UR ROUTE would fol
low the continent's
longest axis, from
near the tip of the
800-mile-long Antarctic Penin
sula, through the Ellsworth and
Thiel Mountains, to the South
Pole (see map, page 69); from
there, across the aptly named
"area of inaccessibility" to the
Soviet scientific bases at Vostok
and Mirnyy. The 800-mile
wide area of inaccessibility had
never before been crossed on
foot, the peninsula never in
winter. Despite the technologi
cal advances
since Roald
Amundsen first reached the
Pole in 1911, we could predict
little about weather or snow
conditions. There was much
about Antarctica we would not
know until we stepped into the
.
middle of it.
Only three of our team had
ever been to Antarctica: Geoff
Somers, for three and a half years with the British Antarctic Survey;
Victor Boyarsky, as a member of the Soviet Arctic and Antarctic
Research Institute; and Chinese glaciologist Qin Dahe, most recently
as base manager of China's Great Wall Station.
Trans-Antarctica officially got under way at sunrise on July 27,
1989: six men, three sleds, 40 dogs. The dogs lurched off so
eagerly they overran and scattered the television crew filming our
departure from Seal Nunataks. The temperature was a balmy 28 0F,
and the going was easy. But within ten miles we encountered the first
Cache and carry: Three
team members recover
supplies at one of 12 de
pots laid by Geoff Somers
the previous year (below).
Despite nine-foot mark
ers, three caches were
never found.
Tragedy was averted
QIN DAHE(TOP); WILL STEGER
less than two weeks out
when two sleds crashed
at the bottom of a slope.
The solution: salvage and
repair (above).
Six Across Antarctica